Want to Be More Valuable in IT? Learn Project Management

The Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification, offered by the Project Management Institute, can be applied to almost any industry around the world. It will give project managers responsible for delivery, leading a cross-functional team and more an expert advantage while boosting salary and earning potential as well. If you’re in IT (information technology), ITES (information technology enabled services), banking or another sector where project management is essential, earning a PMP could be the right choice for you.

The importance of good project management isn’t limited to any specific industry; any company interested in delivering products on time and on budget, or meeting other kinds of production or sales goals, can benefit from it! Here we’ll examine just a handful of the major industry sectors where project management is key.

To understand how a certification training prepares you for project management job roles in the industry, watch this video on PMP Certification Training

IT

Information technology involves “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems” (source: Quora). IT spending is expected to grow to almost $3.5 trillion worldwide in 2017! And for the 10-year period ending in 2024, computer and information technology employment in the U.S. alone is expected to grow 12 percent, “faster than the average of all occupations,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Driving the importance of IT is an increasing emphasis on cloud computing and mobile computing. Whether you’re starting your career as a developer or looking to make the leap straight into project management, learning the basic concepts and best practices through the PMP® certification will increase your skillset and boost your earning potential.

ITES/BPO/KPO

First, let’s get to the bottom of the alphabet soup.

ITES = information technology-enabled services. It’s a part of IT but focuses more on service delivery and communication.

BPO = business process outsourcing, which is when a company outsources business functions to a third party to save money. It can involve areas like customer service, accounting, and human resources.

Plunkett Research estimates that global outsourcing revenues in 2017 will be $565 billion. And in ITES, BPO, and KPO, project management plays a critical role, leading to increased efficiency in terms of cost, time and effort. So if you’re looking to move into one of these fields, gaining project management knowledge and experience is a must.

Banking and Insurance

New technologies for more efficiency and competitiveness are continually emerging in the banking and insurance industries, and new operating models are always on the horizon. How will you keep up? Whenever a new policy, practice or system in insurance or banking is implemented, a project manager or even many project managers are there to make the process as effective as possible. Someone with both IT and project management skills is, therefore, a valuable asset in both of these fields.

Health Care

Health technology may be the most profitable sector in the world. And with health care companies merging, profit margins perpetually in the spotlight and medical techniques becoming more advanced by the day, project management may be more important than ever. Learning how to maximize resources and efficiently meet goals through a project management course will give you a leg up on other candidates when health care companies are looking to hire.

Manufacturing and Construction

Whenever there is work like road construction, bridge construction, and building construction, as well as product manufacturing (and where don’t these things exist?), there is a huge demand for project management. With schedules and cost efficiency of the essence, and with project scope often changing mid-project in response to the market or the client, a skilled project manager can keep things from going off the rails. Learning how to manage a team of employees, contractors, subcontractors and more, as well as how to manage the material resources involved, increases your worth to an employer or can maximize your success if it’s your own business.

Consulting and Training

The U.S. consulting market alone was worth $58.7 billion in 2016, up more than 7 percent from the prior year, and the IT consulting market, in particular, has expanded over the past five years. Specialty areas like cybersecurity and cloud computing are hot, and companies without employees dedicated to these areas are hiring consultants to fill the gap. Similarly, companies need IT workers trained in project management to train their in-house teams on best practices. Becoming certified in PMP® is an excellent way to make yourself stand out from other candidates for consulting or training jobs.

Are you ready to learn how to best handle project schedules, costs, scope of work, project constraints, market competition, stakeholders and more? Take Simplilearn’s PMP® Certification course to get all the training you need.

About the Author

Hemant Deshpande, PMP has more than 17 years of experience working for various global MNC's. He has more than 10 years of experience in managing large transformation programs for Fortune 500 clients across verticals such as Banking, Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Telecom and others. During his career he has worked across the geographies - North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Hemant is an internationally Certified Executive Coach (CCA/ICF Approved) working with corporate leaders. He also provides Management Consulting and Training services. He is passionate about writing and regularly blogs and writes content for top websites. His motto in life - Making a positive difference.